Photographer Captures Portraits of Boston Marathon Survivors

On a frosty February day, survivors of the Boston Marathon[4] bombings returned to the finish line – some for the first time since April 15 – to send a message to the world with a black marker and their skin as the canvas.

In the latest series of his "Dear World[5]" project, photographer Robert Fogarty made portraits of who he calls "a special group of people" on Boylston Street, his subjects' words of hope and resilience scrawled across their bodies.

"I hope people recognize some of their own challenges in the portraits of the survivors," Fogarty said. "To see the Boston Marathon survivors take back what’s truly theirs, while also recognizing that it's a process and that they all have a lot of healing left to do. I hope that we can find empathy in these portraits."

In 2009, Fogarty asked people in his hometown of New Orleans to write love notes to the city on their bodies, and the "Dear World" concept began. It has grown into a visual medium conveying victims overcoming adversity all over the globe.

"We’ve photographed people from around the world, from those in Syrian refugee camps to people who have saved neighbors from natural disasters in Joplin, Missouri," Fogarty said. "The thing that was different about this series was that the people who participated made a conscious decision to come back to where this act of terror happened.

"The other projects we've covered were an act of God with Mother Nature or an international conflict. These things are acutely different than two guys putting backpacks with bombs into an event that's supposed to be about love and support and community."

Fogarty said his goal is to allow his subjects to reveal something personal about themselves or pass along a message to a loved one.

"It truly is the subjects' portrait," Fogarty said. "We facilitate it, but then we get out of the way of what they want to say. It could be a line from their favorite poem or something your high school track coach once told you."

Among those photographed on the finish line was Celeste Corcoran, a double-amputee from Lowell, Massachusetts, whose message was "still standing."

"I wrote 'still standing' because they hurt me, they took my legs, but I can still stand on them," Corcoran said in the caption accompanying her photo. "I just love the play on it. On my naked legs seeing those words and having the prosthetics next to me. Basically saying that I'm still here. I'm still standing."

Fogarty also shot Dave Fortier, a runner who was hit in the foot with shrapnel from the first bomb. He was joined by members of 4:15 STRONG, a support group that doubles as a training team comprised of people who were injured in the bombings.

"Guys like Dave got me fired up to run," said Fogarty, an on-again-off-again runner who has completed a half marathon. "I did sign up for a 10K in New Orleans the weekend before I head back up to Boston for Marathon Monday."